A few evenings ago, we hosted a delightful group of ten Biola students at our house for dinner. During dessert, we launched into a lively discussion about how we should celebrate Christmas as Christians. We discussed various sub-topics under this broader question, but we spent the largest portion of our time talking about how Christians should鈥攁nd should not鈥攖alk to their children about Santa Claus.
Part way through our discussion, one of the young women at our table commented that this was the first time in her life that she had heard Christians questioning the commonplace practice of pretending that Santa Claus is real. Let me repeat what I just wrote for emphasis. In all of her years growing up in an evangelical church in Southern California, this young woman had never heard another Christian challenge the validity of this questionable practice. But she had a lot to think about after 鈥渄inner at the Berdings鈥! Here are five reasons that surfaced during our discussion for why you should stop 鈥減laying the Santa Claus game鈥 with your children. Oh, and if you鈥檙e just discovering through this blog post that Santa isn鈥檛 real 鈥 ummm 鈥 sorry for breaking the news 鈥
Five reasons not to pretend that Santa is real:
1. The Bible repeatedly instructs us to speak what is true. One example among many in the Bible is Ephesians 4:25: 鈥淭herefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.鈥 (Cf. Exodus 20:16; Proverbs 21:28, Zechariah 8:16.) 鈥淪anta Claus actually exists鈥 is a falsehood. Christians should seek always to speak the truth, even with their children. No, especially with their children 鈥
2. Pretending Santa is real could lead to embarrassment for your child. One of the young women at our table recounted that when she was eight years old a couple of her friends broke the 鈥渃ode of silence鈥 and told her that Santa wasn鈥檛 real. Her parents, desiring to prolong the game, found a way to take a photograph of Santa Claus sitting on a sleigh, and offered the photo to their daughter as 鈥渆vidence.鈥 As a result, she became an apologist for the existence of Santa, arguing vehemently for his existence among her group of friends. When her parents were forced to level with her, she was acutely embarrassed about the stance she had taken among her friends. This leads into the next reason to avoid this practice.
3. Pretending Santa is real could result in some level of breaking down of the trust between the child and his or her parents. The young woman I just mentioned talked about how upset she was with her parents when she discovered that this elaborate story wasn鈥檛 true. Her parents鈥 decision to keep replaying this untruth upsets their daughter to this day.
4. Pretending Santa is real could lead to theological confusion in your children as they get older. Example 1: Bring in Joe Atheist: 鈥淵ou believe in God? Do you also believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny?鈥 Example 2: Attributes that only belong to God get attributed to Santa, such as omniscience (鈥渉e sees you when you鈥檙e sleeping鈥e knows if you鈥檝e been bad or good鈥) or omnipresence (he personally delivers packages to all the children in the world in one night. But then again, maybe we should rename that 鈥渙mni-presents鈥?). Who says that this won鈥檛 have any impact on your children鈥檚 understanding of God as they grow up? Example 3: At its best, the Santa Claus metanarrative reinforces moralism; at its worst, pelagianism. (And don鈥檛 get me started on the Elf-On-The-Shelf movement 鈥) This is potentially confusing 鈥 at the very least. At its worst, it could be described as a modern example of syncretism. (Note the line from the song: 鈥淟et鈥檚 give thanks to the Lord above 鈥榗ause Santa Claus comes tonight.鈥)
5. Finally, pretending that Santa is real will take the eyes of your children off of Jesus Christ during the Christmas season. It could cause them to look away from our Lord Jesus, who was born of the virgin Mary, lived a perfect life, died on the cross as a propitiation for our sins, rose from the dead thereby proving his victory over sin and death, and will come again in glory as conqueror and judge. We should be very careful not to allow our children鈥檚 eyes to get diverted from Christ toward something far less significant, that is, toward the sentimental or toward a practice that tends to feed their selfishness rather than to heighten their awareness that they too need Christ.
These are five good reasons not to pretend that Santa is real with your children. So what should you do if you have 鈥減layed this game鈥 with your children in the past鈥攐r are currently playing it?
My recommendation is that you go to your children at whatever age they are and humbly confess to them that you鈥檙e sorry for not speaking what is true. It may be that until today you hadn鈥檛 considered that there might be a problem with this practice for Christians. But a proper doctrine of sin doesn鈥檛 allow you to limit culpability for sin to what you intentionally do; it includes actions, thoughts, and omissions that you didn鈥檛 realize were wrong. (That鈥檚 one of the reasons why the covering of all our sins by the blood of Jesus is so important.) You may actually discover that this humble approach to your children builds trust and strengthens your relationship. (And, yes, I would recommend doing this if your child is a full-grown adult.)
My father came to Christ and my mother returned to her childhood faith when I was six years old. Until that time鈥攁t their encouragement鈥擨 had grown up thinking that Santa Claus was real. But shortly after they believed in Jesus Christ, they decided that they didn鈥檛 want to act untruthfully any longer toward their children. So they sat down with my older sister鈥攚ho may have already figured it out by that time鈥攁long with my younger brother and me, and explained to us that Santa was just a made-up story, and further, that they were sorry for pretending that he was something more. From then on in our household, the Santa story was demoted to the status of a fun fairy tale, and never allowed to become more important than Jesus Christ, who is the center of Christmas. No, Jesus Christ is much more than that. He is the center of all of human history, and the reason Christmas even matters.